Thanks for inviting me to this thread. I “liked” @Bookwich’s comment until I realized she was stating what she didn’t like. Sorry Bookwich but here it goes - I like a squirt of both ketchup and ranch on my plate of Islands’ fries. 
…but the succulent thing was funny.
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Well… unless they are Tory Burch. Daytime only, of course.
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Hahaha, no. They wanted the “hip” jeans vibe and not old school staid dressed up. Thought that would provide more innovation 
Mixed or separate? Wouldn’t mixing be like crossing streams? I can only see bad things happening.
I think there’s a big difference in men wearing beat up flip flops/sandals and some of the very nice looking flip flops women wear.
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I don’t. 
Absolutely. I’ve got flip flops that cost more than a dinner at a nice restaurant. And my feet are always freshly pedicured. Big difference than a guy with ugly feet wearing beat up Old Navy style flip flops.
Of course, we’re not in the South and it’s not 50 years ago. We live in 2017, in Southern California, land of Hollywood and beaches, where designer flip flops make sense. Would I wear designer flip flops to Providence? No. Would I wear them to Nobu Malibu? Yes.
I think it would be odd to hold people to manners/customs/norms from a different part of the country/world and/or social norms from years ago.
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That’s what she would say.
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Well, ya know that NorCal, where we live now, is a tad different than SoCal. I can’t imagine wearing flip-flops,regardless of their cost, to a nice restaurant up here.
Well, I’m not as strict as Tom Ford anyway…
It is a little tough navigating some times. That’s why it’s hard to use the price of the item as a gauge. I have some nice dress shoes that are around $100 they pair well with slacks or jeans and I can walk into most business or dining occasion with them. But I have some friends who are sneaker heads and have nice sneakers that cost 2 or 3 times my nice shoes. I’d think they’d look odd paired with slacks going into some business or dining situations.
Would they be entirely wrong? Probably not, but it still strikes an odd note to me. Grey areas are tough. Same with hats, back in the day when there were hat hooks or coat checks all over the place, men were expected to take hats off once inside, but okay for women to keep on. Now if a man is wearing a nice non-baseball hat while inside, no one thinks it’s a faux pas, especially since there’s no place to store the hat.
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Er, I do 
I was thinking if there are places still requiring jackets it would be in NOLA. We were really sorry to have missed dining at Galatoire’s when visiting in December. They were so apologetic for not being able to accommodate us; the manager sent me 3 emails. That is class.
Side bar:
We had Xmas Eve dinner at Clancy’s. They required dress shirt and slacks, but not a jacket. My husband wore a suit anyway. It was such a delightful time. A time you don’t have in our beloved but very casual L.A.
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It’s so true. I have all these really nice clothes for a life I no longer have.
So, no snark. But what is a guy supposed to do? I like to wear a nice hat that goes with my outfit. But if I’m at a bar or a restaurant, there simply is no place to store it. I’ve read some articles that say owners don’t mind since most of the time, the guys are dressed nice and it gives the place a good feel if it’s a more upscale place. Versus someone who dresses sloppily but they’ll still let in.
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I’m very much a live and let live kind of guy unless you are threatening me. For the most part I don’t care what other patrons wear as long as it’s clean and not overly distracting to what I’m doing. That said, it is nice sometimes to go out for a special occasion and have everyone dressed to the nines and have it be an elegant evening of dining, dancing, etc. But that doesn’t really happen in LA so one has to learn to just roll with it. In some ways, sometimes it’s more fun to be the fun dressed the best and having a great time around people dressed more casually.
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It’s really crazy sometimes though, I was at n/naka and there was a family of 3 dressed as if they were going to yoshinoya. They knew everyone by name though, so it was clear they had the discretionary income to go to n/naka on an extremely regular basis.
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In this day and age I only insist my sons take their baseball hats off. Dad’s pork pie gets to stay on his head. If restaurants still want hats off they should have hat racks or coat checks.
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I suppose like most women with handbags at most restaurants - put them on the floor? I see this so much now I don’t get all prickly.
When we go out ‘nice’ it’s still pretty casual. Bob will wears Dockers-style pants and a nice shirt. In colder weather a sweater and/or his very nice leather jacket. We’ve been out to Thanksgiving dinners a couple of times when traveling and he wore a blazer but no tie.
Just for kicks some years ago - and we were living in a small town in Southern Oregon - we had a ‘formal’ dinner party for eight at our home. Some men wore tuxedos and some wore suits/jackets and ties. It was very fun.